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Crucial Decision Delayed Again Write to Minister Before April 18!

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has delayed again his decision on whether to surrender Dr. Hassan Diab to France. The Minister is now expected to make his decision by April 18, 2012.

WRITE to or CALLMinister Nicholson and urge him NOT to surrender Hassan. Demand that Canadian standards of evidence be applied in extradition cases and that Canada protect and uphold the rights of its citizens.

The allegations against Dr. Diab are based on secret intelligence from unknown sources that may have been the product of torture, and on a French handwriting analysis report that internationally renowned handwriting experts have unanimously condemned as deeply flawed.

The extradition judge described the case against Hassan as “problematic” and “weak”, and declared that “the prospects of conviction in the context of a fair trial seem unlikely”, but said his interpretation of Canada’s extradition law left him no choice but to commit Hassan to extradition.

Hassan’s case highlights the unfairness of Canada’s extradition law. Canadians may be extradited to foreign countries based on the flimsiest of evidence that would not stand in a Canadian court of law. Moreover, Canada’s extradition law is one-sided; Canada extradites its citizens to France, but France does not extradite its own citizens.